Surface changes added to passing

Thursday

Passes during green-flag conditions more than doubled last Saturday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway after the racing surface was reconfigured.

New concrete and new banking allowed for more side-by-side racing. There were 991 passes on the .533-mile short track last April and 2,147 during last Saturday's main event.

But very few were for the lead.

While there were a lot of passes deep in the field, two drivers - Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne - combined to lead 487 of 500 laps.

"I think in the big picture this is a transition race," Edwards said after leading the final 30 laps to win the Sharpie 500. "You've gone from an older style car at a track that's been the way it's been for however many years, to a new style racetrack. It looks the same, but it sure isn't the same, so you've got a new racetrack and new cars. I believe it's going to take a while to shake out the field and see which teams excel at this specific type of track and with these cars. So it is a change."

VILLENEUVE TO NASCAR: Another open-wheel driver is moving to NASCAR.

Former Indy-car and Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve successfully tested a Craftsman Truck Monday at the Chicagoland Speedway, so car owner Bill Davis now plans to enter him in seven truck races this year.

And if all goes well, Villeneuve could be in the Nextel Cup Series next year.

Villeneuve is taking the same path at Juan Pablo Montoya. After winning an Indy-car championship and enjoying a successful career in Formula One, Montoya made the jump to NASCAR this year.

The two teams talked about transferring the car number - along with the owner points - to a new team being formed for Dale Earnhardt Jr. The number would be close to his current number 8 and it would lock him into the starting lineup for the first five races next year.

Earnhardt, however, will be able to use the owner points generated by Hendrick's current driver, Kyle Busch.

A new car number and sponsor should be announced in the next couple weeks. Earnhardt won't take No. 8 or Budweiser from his current employer, Dale Earnhardt Inc. It's expected, however, that he's struck a new deal to be sponsored by Pepsi and Mountain Dew.

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com

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